Anti-Pope Bergoglio, the “cleric” everyone loves to hate, has, as everyone by now knows, decided to finally tear off the mask and come right out and endorse same-sex marriage. Although he’s still not quite prepared yet to force the Catholic Church to bless the practice (he was careful to demand specific recognition only of civil unions), knowing Bergoglio as we do, a papal fiat making same-sex unions sacred under church law is only a matter of time.
Not only should this move on Bergoglio’s part surprise no one, it should remind us again of the painful yet clearly observable fact that nearly ALL incorporated Christian denominations are dogmatically committed to keeping one foot firmly planted in the World, usually the foot that they most favor. Once church denominations decided to become non-profit corporations rather than strive to remain parts of the Body of Christ, they opened themselves up to the inevitable corruption that is part and parcel of adhering to temporal practices. A nonprofit corporation, like a for-profit corporation, cannot exist without customers/donors. Given that a true rebirth in Christ requires commitment to commandments, covenants, and rules that are anathema to the World and its ways, few will truly seek such a genuine rebirth. A key difference between the church congregations of the First Century and the sham churchian corporate franchises that have replaced them today is that the belief and commitment of the overwhelming majority of the former was genuine, people who truly had separated themselves from the World and were risking their very lives in doing so. Precious few such people can be found in today’s churchian franchises, which must therefore bow to the World in order to remain “going concerns” (to use a corporate commercial term fitting for the type of organizations they are). This of course means catering to the culture to the greatest extent possible, and at the moment the culture (and the government that reflects it) loves same-sex marriage. Since churchian franchises are creations and worshipers of Caesar, they defer first and foremost to Caesar’s laws. They cannot remain going concerns otherwise.
This is why, abominable and heretical as Anti-Pope Bergoglio is, it is rather hypocritcal for us Protestants to single him out for criticism. Given the deterioration of all of the Protestant denominations now (some having begun the convergence sooner than others), it would be foolish to believe that prominent leaders of most, if not ALL of the Protestant sects will be following Bergoglio’s lead soon. Protestants have already given themselves over to the Temporal World on so many other issues that there is no reason to believe that this one will be an exception.
I will assert that only certain branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church and non-denominational Protestants not formally incorporated (a.k.a. “home churches”) will refuse to follow the false churches and the World on this. Consider gravitating towards one of these two options now, unless you look forward to fighting what is bound to be a futile battle against “churches” that you already know to be well on their way to full convergence and ultimately apostasy.
To Reclaim Normality 
This is why, abominable and heretical as Anti-Pope Bergoglio is, it is rather hypocritcal for us Protestants to single him out for criticism.
1. Titles are unimportant. Pope or Anti-Pope.. both are labels. The head of every man is Christ. He is a meaningless character of an apostate organisation of circle-jerking pedos.
2. We are all hypocrites, but honest hypocrites. We advocate a standard that we are unable and often times unwilling to uphold ourselves.
3. Labels are applied to and adopted by cowards. I am no more responsible for any group of Catholics than I am any group of Baptists or Hindus or Jews or Muslims. I am responsible for my field and what happens there. To assume any sort of responsibility for the action of any other is folly, per Proverbs. I speak only to my matters, and I answer only to the King.
4. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, man nor woman. And we are to not let evil be counted among us.
5. If anyone should lead anyone of lesser spiritual maturity astray, it would be better that they were never born.
By all counts, he is to be marked as a heretic and swiftly ignored for perpetuity until the Angel reaps the Harvest. May God have mercy on his soul.
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Various congregations of the UMC are currently in the process of leaving over this issue. In the upcoming years, a significant percentage will do so (including the majority of the western conference). But, since the UMC itself reaffirmed the traditional biblical perspective, it may be the only major denomination that has no plans to cave.
A number of years ago, the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in Lancaster, PA voted to leave the wider Mennonite denomination after the national denomination embraced same-sex relationships (including clergy). The LMC, which represented a significant percentage of the total number of Mennonites, is still thriving.
Those are the only two that I know of that have explicitly refused to embrace liberalized sexuality. Perhaps you or your readers know of more.
I currently attend a hardcore fundamentalist, traditionalist, non-denominational ‘Baptist’ church. Isolated, individual instances exist, but they have to be searched for.
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I currently attend a hardcore fundamentalist, traditionalist, non-denominational ‘Baptist’ church. Isolated, individual instances exist, but they have to be searched for.
You remind me that I should have added “traditionalist, separatist congregations such as Amish, Anabaptists, and Mennonites” to the beginning of my last paragraph speaking of exceptions to the current trend. That’s an obvious omission that I don’t know how I overlooked.
I submit that one of the greatest challenges we will face in the near future as a remnant is to not give in to despair. To see more and more of those we would have once considered brethren so thoroughly capitulate to the World and its master is demoralizing beyond words.
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Christianity is now individual. From a post today:
“Lacking the encouragement and support of a good church community; solo Christians may well benefit from a self-understanding of life as a spiritual quest; requiring heroic virtues such as tenacity, endurance and courage – but also with the hope of eventual heroic gratifications (albeit probably not in this life, not on this earth). “
…
“Some individuals benefit from more discipline and regularity – others from more impulsivity and spontaneity. Each must discover which he needs – and sometimes self-monitoring will reveal that an error has been made and a different – even opposite – practice is required. “
…
“Of course, in such matters we all – at all times and places – have the possibility of guidance by the Holy Ghost [..] We are never without guidance, and self-corrections [are] always made possible by God [..]Thus armed we may embark on our personal quest of a Christian life with cheer, confidence and courage. “
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I think Dalrock showed that once you negated God’s laws regarding the sexes, to allow for Feminism, you could not call upon those same sexual law to then forbid homosexuality.
The Great Whore, the Catholic church, is the “Mother Of Harlots” mentioned in Revelation 17:5. So who are her whoring daughter churches birthed off of the mother church? Would they not include all the Protestant churches which were born from the mother during the travail of the reformation?
Peter Waldo (c. 1140 – c. 1205) and one of his Waldensians went to Rome, where they were welcomed by Pope Alexander III and the Roman Curia.
John Wycliffe (c. 1320s – 1384) became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism.
John Hus ( c. 1372 – 6 July 1415) Was a Roman Catholic priest in Prague.
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) was a German priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531) was a pastor in Zürich where he preached on reform of the Catholic Church.
Martin Bucer (1491 – 1551) was a German Dominican, later excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church.
Menno Simons (1496 – 1561) was a Roman Catholic priest from the Friesland.
John Calvin (1509 – 1564) was a French theologian. He broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530.
The protestant churches are all daughters of the Mother Of Harlots. If you have eyes to see, you will see it.
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The protestant churches are all daughters of the Mother Of Harlots. If you have eyes to see, you will see it.
Imagine the evangelical heads exploding over this.
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@Sharkly October 23, 2020 at 8:39 pm
To your “list of suspects” add:
John Knox (1514-1572), a Scottish priest who broke with the Catholic Church, led the Reformation in Scotland, and established the Presbyterian Church.
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I fail to see how a person’s action of rejecting obvious heresy, and attempting, however imperfectly, to adhere to the whole word of God, shows them to be suspect.
No human has the Bible 100% understood. All the important, basic stuff, sure. But things like end-times prophecy were deliberately obscured, as explicitly stated in the book of Daniel.
And any group of humans will therefore have a multiplicity of lacks in understanding.
Getting back to the OP, yes, we need to recognize that any group will have flaws. Do we have loyalty to the “church”, or to God? If to the church, then you will have a hard time, as they will inevitably fail.
If your loyalty is to God then there will still be issues, but they are less;
– if a group is too egregious in their sin, you can just leave that group. Your focus is following God, so leaving a particular group is not a crisis of faith.
– since you accept that this earthly group is made up of flawed people, not perfect representatives of God’s will, the inevitable errors are properly seen as errors of the part of that person, not a failing of God.
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JPF,
The great reformers are “suspect” of still being part of the church, which has many whoring daughter denominations birthed from the Mother of Harlots. You are correct that the truth was obscured from them, and that they were rejecting the heresies which were obvious to them at the time. I’m not trying to put them down, only to point out that their churches also have, from their beginning, committed harlotry with the world, just like the Mother of Harlots.
Another true brother has written that Jesus Christ is the last Adam. And that the church is the body of Christ, not the bride of Christ. Like with Adam the bride is a small remnant or rib, first removed and taken out of the body of Christ, the second Adam. God then makes that small remnant separated out away from the body of Christ into the bride of Christ, the last Adam.
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@Derek Ramsey
October 27, 2020 at 5:57 am
Tragic. One wonders if there is anything approaching sufficient self-awareness in the majority of churchian “pastors” that they will at some point realize just how irrelevant they’ve become.
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JPF,
The great reformers are “suspect” of still being part of the church, which has many whoring daughter denominations birthed from the Mother of Harlots. You are correct that the truth was obscured from them, and that they were rejecting the heresies which were obvious to them at the time. I’m not trying to put them down, only to point out that their churches also have, from their beginning, committed harlotry with the world, just like the Mother of Harlots.
Another true brother has written that Jesus Christ is the last Adam. And that the church is the body of Christ, not the bride of Christ. Like with Adam the bride is a small remnant or rib, first removed and taken out of the body of Christ, the second Adam. God then makes that small remnant separated out away from the body of Christ into the bride of Christ, the last Adam.
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